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Consultancy offering smoothes the path to the Cloud

Posted on 17 September 2012 by Pierre Picard

A hassle-free transformation to Cloud computing, with Advisory Services for the Cloud

Assessing the impact, understanding the challenges, defining a Cloud strategy

The Cloud brings with it many opportunities, but transforming infrastructures to a ‘Cloud services’ model can be a complex, even risky process. For IT Departments, it means finding a new balance between maintaining the efficiency of information systems and ensuring that they are capable of responding to the pressures from the business; and achieving this involves making many different choices. Which is why Bull offers its consulting services to customers, under the banner of Bull Advisory Services. This range of services is a key pillar of the Group’s Le cloud by Bull™ offering, designed to ensure successful transformation towards the Cloud by helping IT Departments to:

Evaluate the full impact on the organization and its business processes

Understand all the challenges and issues relating to the Cloud

Choose one or a number of different service delivery models, that balance the demands for good quality service and cost control

Implement these models, while mitigating against the attendant risks.

The complexity involved in transformation towards the Cloud is directly related to how the Cloud model affects the whole organization: the business, its organization structures, methods, tools, financial models, relationships with partners, the structure of its information systems and applications, its IT tools… What’s more, moving to the Cloud involves aligning services very closely to the organization’s key priorities: so a perfect understanding of business needs is essential.

Taking a 360° view, to effectively combine business needs and IT capabilities

Transforming IT infrastructures for Cloud computing involves addressing the fundamental issues faced by IT Departments:

Making services available that get the very best out of the organization’s business functions

Boosting information systems efficiency

Implementing new business models

Actually measuring service quality, based on continuous improvement processes

Cutting operating costs, through greater automation and a more proactive approach

Managing increasingly serious risks linked to security and the growing number of different regulations that have to be complied with

Implementing interfaces and contractual processes with partners.

Advisory Services for the Cloud addresses all these issues, using a set of assessments that take a 360° view and take all these elements into account. Bull consultants value services by assessing their eligibility, anticipating future needs, and looking at how to industrialize day-to-day relationships and guarantee that the required service levels are met. They also analyze the organization structures and skills that need to be put in place, the procedures, documentation and tools that may be needed, and the best technologies to implement.

Advisory Services for the Cloud is based on a proven methodology, industry standards, recommendations and best practices such as Cobit for IT governance, ITIL V3 for services life-cycle management, e-SCM for optimum management of the customer/supplier relationship, CMMI for evaluating the transformation management project leadership team, LEAN for activities and services that add real value for the organization, and ISO.

The aim of this 360° assessment is to identify several possible scenarios; taking into account the customer’s business context and objectives, the constraints and risks they face, and the expected costs and benefits of each of these scenarios, to help them make the best possible choice.

Based on this, the IT Department should then be able to publish a services catalogue, define a target architecture and control indicators, put in place continuous improvement mechanisms and have a clear vision of the roadmap ahead based on pre-qualified elements. The target architecture suggested by Advisory Services for Cloud takes into account the specific characteristics of a Cloud: spontaneity and responsiveness to a request for a service, efficient capacity management, flexibility, the ability to grow with the organization, security, optimized and proactive systems administration and operation… all resulting the ability to guarantee the services levels required and anticipate problems at source.

Advisory Services explains how you can move towards the Cloud…

Advisory Services is Bull’s specialist consulting unit dedicated to IT infrastructure transformation. Its consultants use rigorous, rapid and independent analyses – based on established methodological frameworks such as ITIL, Cobit and e-SCM – to support IT Departments in their transition to Cloud computing by re-orienting themselves to become focused on service delivery.